Blog Post 2, Brain Development

I could teach music history in numerous ways to enhance different areas of the brain. First of all, I could teach with visuals: showing a piece of music from that time period and comparing with another time period, showing a picture of the composer or numerous composers from the same musical time period, showing a painting that relates to the time period or the piece of music, and so on. This would stimulate the ventral stream of the brain. Using animation would help too - making the images interact somehow. This might be more difficult for music, but it can be done! Maybe it would be possible to find an animation of a conductor leading the orchestra in a piece from the era, or a group of people from that time period listening to the music as it's playing in the background. This would stimulate the dorsal stream of the brain. Also, using emotion would trigger the limbic system of the brain. For music, this is extremely important! Asking students to picture being in a situation (such as being deaf like Beethoven) could be a useful tool. However, the most effective could perhaps be playing a some from the time period and really explaining an emotion the music brings out really would enhance what the students were feeling. Or, simply asking them the emotions they feel from the music! These would all be effective tools in using different areas of the brain to teach music history.